Labourers sort through sacks of rotting wheat while trying to salvage any grains that is still edible at an open storage area near Amritsar in this file picture.
London: India stands out for its glaring lack of infrastructure and food storage facilities, in a new study that says 21 million tonnes of wheat — equivalent to the entire production of Australia —goes waste in the country.
The report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME) on global food wastage found that as much as 50 per cent of all food produced around the world never reaches a human mouth. In Pakistan 16 per cent of food grains are wasted.
At least 40 per cent of all fruit and vegetable is lost in India between the grower and consumer due to lack of refrigerated transport, poor roads, weather and corruption, it said.